This site will focus on me as an artist. Let me tell you briefly a
little about myself. I was born July 1st 1945 as one of a pair of twins at the
hospital in Narvik, Sápmi, Norway, or rather the ruins of a town that had been
targeted for bombs during WW II. Originally I come from a small coastal Sámi
village Searvegieddi in Deanudat, and the dreaded TB disease also infected me.
My grandfather and all my 3 uncles died of it prematurely. Nils Anders died first
2o years old, then Samuel died the same year I was born at the age of 25, then
Amund who «passed on» the disease (without being aware of it, of course) to me,
and I was hospitalized for 9 years, 7 ½ in Romsa/Tromsø.

(You can see photos of them here on my website under Kevi Photo Memories, subpage: Family photos)

I have a very
different, and for this area, rather unusual, though not unique) childhood. When I got out of
hospital Sept 21 1956, I did my best to try to forget those years! They may
also explain why I became an artist…

Being an artist is far from an ideal, it is, like the ancient noaiddit
of my people, a heavy task, and a lonesome one, full of responsibilities but
also spiritually very rewarding. I know there have been shamans in my line, and
I use to compare being an artist with being a noaidi. The similarities
outnumber the differences.

Yet this has been and is being used against me, as something to loathe,
to disregard as unfit in present contemporary society, and what not.

To put it short: It is in the art sphere that attitudes and
Machiavellian power games have survived and thrive, after being banned from the
realm of democratic societies. Racism, favourising and discrimination are in full
power in the art world, I am afraid, only with different titles and under the
umbrella of so called artistic «freedom». (27.04.2010)